This invention relates to a device by which sacks or similar containers can be forwarded from a filling station to further processing stations, or to storage or to elsewhere, and more particularly, though not exclusively, to such a device suitable for handling sacks or like containers filled with usually pulverulent materials having a poor consistency and marked volatility features, and requiring therefore that the sack be kept in a vertical position, not only by a support at the bottom of the sack, but also by propping up the sack in the area of its filling opening. Such opening is to be sealed directly after the filling of the sack, and is to be maintained in such a sealed condition during the course of all subsequent operations, to thereby prevent a loss of material from the sack, as well as any possibility of pollution of the surrounding environment.
There are known systems by which one sack at a time is removed in a flattened condition from a stack of sacks, the removed sack is then automatically conveyed to a filling station, where the sack mouth is opened and slipped over a filling sleeve and retained thereagainst by suitable means, e.g. in the form of jaws acting from the exterior of the sack. Once the sack or like container is filled, it is transferred to a conveyor by which the sack is forwarded to subsequent processing stations, whereat, e.g., the sack edges are sewn, tags for the identification of the sack contents are applied, etc.
In the situation mentioned above, i.e. when the sacks are filled with particularly volatile materials, it is essential that the filled sack be transferred very slowly from the filling attachment or nozzle to the forwarding conveyor, and moreover that the sack mouth be immediately sealed and maintained in such sealed condition until the edges of the sack mouth are sewn, to prevent any loss of material and also to prevent any resultant pollution of the environment.
Such operations are heretofore performed manually, with a consequently high labour requirement, and also with the possibility of mistakes being made in performing the operation in the correct sequence.